Tony Gonsolin of the Los Angeles Dodgers (41–25) became the first in MLB to reach nine wins this season with strong batting, 17 hits, including Freddie Freeman’s 5 RBIs in 8–2 dominance at the Cincinnati Reds (23–44) on Tuesday.
“I feel like I’m throwing a lot more competitive pitches this year and able to get some early contact, which allows me to be more efficient and go deeper into games,” said the 28-year-old Gonsolin.
The right-handed Gonsolin (9–0, 1.58 ERA) threw 87 pitches in five innings of work for four strike-outs; giving up three hits, and two solo home runs in the first two innings to Jonathan India and Albert Almora.
“It’s just throwing a lot more strikes,” said Gonsolin throwing 58 of 87 pitches for strikes primarily throwing his four-seam fastball, along with a slider and splitter.
“Weathered some traffic, gave up a couple homers. But man, I thought he was fine,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “Obviously, wasn’t as efficient as he has been recently. Tony just managed the outing, which is really good to see.”
Freeman hit 3-for-4 driving in five runs, including a triple in the eighth inning with the bases loaded. His double in the third gave the Dodgers a 3–2 lead after back-to-back singles by Gavin Lux and Trea Turner.
“We haven’t been swinging the bats very good for a couple of weeks,” said Freeman said. “It’s not just situational hitting. It’s hitting in general. This is a hard game. It was nice to get a day off, a couple days off in the past week, and come out and have a good start to the road trip.”
“He’s a tough out. He’s got a quick bat,” Reds starter Tyler Mahle said of Freeman. “I don’t think there is a pitch that I throw and it’s like, ‘OK, he’s going to be super off balance.’ I feel like he’s never off balance, at least for me. Maybe it’s an easy at-bat for him against me, I don’t know, but I just feel like he’s getting good swings off and on time and stuff.”
Mahle (2-6, 4.57 ERA) gave up four runs through six innings allowing 12 hits, but was able to strand eight baserunners.
“I had to battle through six,” Mahle said. “It was just the way it was today. It wasn’t easy. I had to grind against a good team.”
Dodgers catcher Will Smith homered to left to open the scoring in the first inning, going 2-for-4 with two RBI’s, while Trea Turner hit 4-for-5, scoring twice.
Turner has moved to the top of the line-up with Mookie Betts out for several weeks with a cracked rib after colliding with Cody Bellinger in the outfield last week.
“I think that’s what this lineup is about, is guys doing their job," said team-leading Turner with 49 RBIs. And we got a lot of really good players, but sometimes we’re gonna have to do small things to win ballgames.”
Turner leads the Dodgers with a batting average of .310, and has a current 13-game hitting streak following a 26-game hit streak this season.
“Across the board, I thought we had some really good at-bats,” added Roberts. “We took walks when needed and put up a lot of hits tonight.”
The two teams matchup again Wednesday, in the second of the three-game series, with the Dodgers starting LHP Tyler Anderson (8-0, 2.82 ERA) versus the Reds RHP Luis Castillo (2-4, 3.33).
